GOP Presidential candidate front runner Donald Trump is making claims the delegate system is unfair as a part of the nominating process. The rules state the party nominee must reach 1,237 delegates to be the party nominee. WGVU spoke with a political strategist and a political commentator about Trump’s complaint and what it means heading into the GOP National Convention.
“The rules are the rules.”
That’s NPR and ABC News political commentator and author, Cokie Roberts, who was in Grand Rapids Wednesday commemorating first lady Betty Ford’s 98th birthday.
“The fact is that both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are complaining about the rules. Hilary Clinton lost to Barack Obama because she didn’t understand the rules in 2008 and he did.”
“Well, you’ve always needed a majority of the delegates at the National Convention in order to win the nomination.”
But this year, John Yob who served as Deputy Political Director on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign says more than ever the state primaries mater
“At this convention roughly 90 percent of the delegates are bound on the first ballot and this is the first convention in which we have these tight binding rules.”
“I’m hundreds of delegates ahead, but the system folks is rigged. It’s a rigged, disgusting, dirty system.”
GOP frontrunner Donald Trump making his case to western New York supporters that the person who wins the most votes in the primary process should automatically be the GOP nominee.
“The fact of the matter is, these days, winning a Republican for President of the United States requires you to win at the convention. You need to win at the state conventions across the country and you have to win at the national convention. You have an air war where you fight in the primaries of these states, like the Michigan Primary, but ultimately you have to win the ground war as well. So I would relate it to going to battle deciding to bomb the major cities but deciding you’re not going to send the troops in to take the capitol. The fact of the matter is you have to do both.”
Yob is convinced it will be a contested convention in Cleveland. He’s written a book on convention rules called “Chaos.”
For Cokie Roberts, there’s no book needed.
“To me it’s not very complicated. You get into this game you learn the rules
Patrick Center, WGVU News.